Cycling UK Your efforts on the climb are now repaid in full, with a relaxed roll down westwards, overlooking rich farmland and old woods. The mixed gravel surface turns to dirt double track alongside Noad’s Copse which can make things trickier in winter. From Middle Winterslow the chalky clay-rutted byway of Monarch’s Way doesn’t seem that regal now. The long, sunken, slope-sided descent it turns into definitely deserves respect and caution even in the dry. The almost dead straight alignment gives away its origins as a Roman road but it’s certainly not dead flat as you winch your way past Firsdown. Don’t get totally fixated on your front wheel though, as the views of Salisbury and the Neolithic and Iron Age site of Figsbury Ring are beautiful. More recent and more sinister history hangs over the chemical and biological weapons research centre at Porton Down on the horizon to the north too. Busy traffic is more of a concern as the modern world comes at you with a noisy rush at the A30. It’s only a quick scuttle across before you’re back into a tight tunnel of undergrowth again, diving down
Porton Down Porton Down research camp was hurriedly created in WWI to develop protective equipment against the horrors of poison gas warfare as well as develop the UK’s own weapons. Thankfully, neither its research nor products (including anthrax and other biological weapons) were used in either of the World Wars but it was very busy during the Cold War, playing catch up on research and development of the nerve agents created but never deployed by Nazi Germany. It was the birthplace of VX nerve gas and CS crowd control gases, and is still one of the most secretive and heavily protected military sites in the UK. 26
under the railway. From here, you turn left off the Monarch’s Way, briefly following the line of the River Bourne (more of a stream) south before rejoining the Roman road alignment for the last couple of kilometres past Old Sarum Airfield. With just under 40 kilometres and a reasonable amount of climbing now in your legs, Salisbury itself, just to the south, is an obvious break and/or stopover point if you’re not pushing the pace. Either way, be sure to pedal up the entrance road between the huge grassy ramparts of Old Sarum as you’ll soon appreciate the sheer scale of this very significant Iron Age and Early Medieval site once you’re inside. You can visit the remains of the Norman castle in the centre, which is free if you have English Heritage membership, or you can buy a ticket on the gate. Even if you don’t go inside, if you sit on the grass outside the keep, you’ll be on the first piece of an intricate archaeological jigsaw that’s about to surround you as you continue onwards through the World Heritage site of Stonehenge and Avebury.
